(noted record collector M. Shkreli walks out of Matador’s 2017 “Best Of’ presentation party at the Princeton Corporate Finance Club after being informed his reference acetate to the unreleased ‘Hippy Porn’ soundtrack has been seized by the SEC)

Around this time every year, your about to “go postal” (except we’re not supposed to use that expression given how hard our letter carrier friends work )conscientious editor attempts to coax a list of favorite recordings, books, television programs, life events, etc. out of the label’s artist roster and our show business friends. In the past, the exercise has been an trying process, fraught with nagging, teeth-gnashing and no shortage of hesitant participants, some of whom actually changed labels or places of employment or their identities to avoid the task. Even worse, we continue to overlook persons currently recording for or working for the record label (either that or they’ve saving their lists for Brooklyn Vegan).

For some historical perspective, here’s last year’s selections. Questions or comments about our crap taste and/or inexplicable omissions are welcome (but it’s totally ok if you keep it to yourself) . And without further ado, let the coronation of Kendrick Lamar commence – GC)

Shows
Newaxeyes at The Crocodile, Seattle
Still House Plants at Fred Paton Daycare Centre, Glasgow
Einsturzende Neubauten at The Forum, London
Bad Breeding at Sebright Arms, London
Moor Mother/Uniform at Pioneer Works, Brooklyn
Liars/Marie Davidson/Blanck Mass at Visions Festival, London

Jeremy Corbyn
Get Out
Cosey Fanni Tutti “Art Sex Music”
Arthur Jaffa A Series of Utterly Improbable, Yet Extraordinary Renditions at the Serpentine
John Akomfrah Purple at the Barbican Curve
Imagine Moscow at the Design Museum

After a coming off a 15 year hangover and finding Christ Dylan returns to more secular songwriting and has Mark Knopfler return to play on and produce his upcoming record, the band is rounded out by former (greatest) Stones guitarist Mick Taylor and famed reggae musicians and producers Sly & Robbie. Infidels closes with this track, one of Bobby’s greatest love songs in this non album alternate take.

2) Bob Dylan on the set of Hearts Of Fire

In 1986 Dylan made another pass at acting as if being in Sam Peckinpah’s greatest film wasn’t already enough this time around he was being directed by the man a few years off of Return of the Jedi and what would be considered by some as the film that did him in as he died of a stroke later the same year. Gone are the days of Bob and co. fleeing to a nearby car to evade screaming fans you may be familiar with from Don’t Look Back or Eat the Document here we see Bob yucking it up with some metal head children (“Oh yeah? you like Ozzy? How about RATT?), unwillingly taking a photo with a fan who thinks he shares a similar nose line as he, willingly taking some photos with 2 female fans then says hello to an old Canadian wrestler and father of Jake “The Snake” Roberts; Grizzly Smith. All this and more can be seen in the documentary about the making of the film called GETTING TO DYLAN

On September 15th we heard of the tragic passing of Harry Dean Stanton, a man everyone in the Matador Warehouse has greatly admired for years. After resisting the urge to watch Cockfighter and/or UFOria I settled on listening to he, Bob and Bob’s son-in-law take to the Chabad Telethon in Los Angeles. Bob only plays harp on this but Harry Dean and Rabbi Shlomo interaction is the real treat here. RIP HDS!

In 2017 thanks to a YouTube user who I will not name here but whose amazing account can be accessed through the link we were able to conquer the entire 1975/1976 tour with The Rolling Thunder Revue, no need to go into detail about the electric energy from these shows but this one in particular kept us coming back for more. The band is on fire and blazes through the first set with Mick Ronson guitar finally high in the mix. Maybe the best Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You and a beautiful Never Let Me Go > St. Augustine > I Shall Be Released end ithe first set. Bobby comes back out for a legendary 2nd set that includes a very emotional Hurricane which the concert was a benefit for Rubin Carter’s legal costs. Video footage of the entire concert exists and was screened this year in secret at the future site of the Bob Dylan Archives Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Bootleg Series #13 was released in November of 2017 and we at the Warehouse were gearing up all year long and off the unreleased tracks we were familiar with from various bootlegs this was a favorite. “The band was fiiiine” says a Portland, OR Radio Spot promoting a 1980 concert and that man couldn’t be more correct. In arguably Bobby’s greatest touring band since The Band, Bob released 3 great albums and toured behind them relentlessly in what I consider to be his most confrontational period since the 1966 tour.

TOP 10 FILM SCREENINGS IN NEW YORK CITY 2017 :

1. World On A Wire (1973, Rainer Werner Fassbinder) – Museum of Modern Art – 35mm

Shit and Shine – Some People Really Know How To Live (Editions Mego)
The Weather Station – s/t (Paradise Of Bachelors)
Ted Leo – The Hanged Man (TL/RX)
Haram – When You Have Won, You Have Lost (La Vida Es Un Mus Discos)
Snakehole – s/t (Wharf Cat)

David Keenan – This Is Memorial Device : An Hallucinated Oral History of the Post-Punk Music Scene in Airdrie, Coatbridge and Environs 1978–1986 (Faber & Faber)